New Mexico imposes a moratorium on oil and gas wells close to schools

COUNSELOR, N.M. — Members of the Navajo community have complained to Samuel Sage for years about the noise and vibrations that rattle their homes.

They tell him about the dust kicked up by heavy trucks traveling the surrounding dirt roads and the smells that come from some of the oil and natural gas wells and tank batteries that dot the land around their Navajo community of Counselor in northwestern New Mexico.

Sage, the former president of the Navajo Chapter in Counselor and current community services coordinator, is among a group of residents and environmentalists who have sued New Mexico for allegedly failing to prevent pollution in northwestern and southeastern parts of the state.

About 144,000 people — 7% of the state’s population — live or attend a school or day care within a halfmile radius of oil and gas production, according to the lawsuit. The suit also states almost all of the elementary, middle and high schools in the Hobbs district in Lea County as well as school districts in Eddy County are surrounded by oil and gas extraction and production sites on state, federal and private lands.

On Thursday, New Mexico Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard issued an executive order that includes a ban on all new oil and gas leases on state trust land within a mile of schools or other educational institutions, including day care centers, preschools and sports facilities that students use.

The order, which takes effect Thursday, also calls for her office — which oversees thousands of square miles of surface lands and mineral rights — to review all existing oil and gas leases on state trust land within a mile of schools to assess compliance with state regulations.